What’s in a Nickname?

Even though the name “Erin” didn’t make it onto the top 100 names for girls list this past year, it is still fairly common. I’ve known quite a few girls named Erin since I was born and it always fascinated me how we could share the same name, and still be so different, but obviously sharing a first name doesn’t mean a thing when it comes to personality. Even if you’ve never met anyone who shares your first name, you can’t deny that when others have the same name it can create a very interesting form of confusion.

Back in high school, even though I went to a small, private, all-girls school, there were three girls named Erin other than myself. Two of them were in my year, and the others were older than me. I happened to be friends with one of them, the older one, and it became a pain to call both of us Erin and get us confused. So it was decided that since the other girl was older she would retain the name Erin, and I would be “E-Mo” or “Mo” for short. At first it was weird, but I got used to it pretty quickly and actually came to enjoy the nickname.

When I reached college, one of the clubs I joined had a large number of guys with the name “Derek”. It was very difficult to distinguish each of them, so a nicknaming system was devised. There was the original Derek, who had joined the club first, the next was called “Prime”, then “Third”, then “Quattro”, and so forth. All of the names stuck too. It was a fun, and easy way to tell them apart without in a way that was not insulting.

At EMPAC this week, a new employee joined us who’s name is Erin as well, which is what inspired this post. While neither of us has been given a nickname yet, I can only assume that it will happen eventually since we both work with lighting. I volunteered the use of my old nickname “Mo” since I’m already used to responding to that, but you can’t force a nickname, they just happen. Let’s hope that whatever sticks is a good one.

Do you have a nickname? If so, was it to distinguish yourself from others with the same name?

Erin Morelli

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My roommates and I all have dumb nicknames for each other. My roommate Pat is called “Skinny Dickson,” Nick is “The Dungeon Master,” Pete is “Farm Boy,” Andrew is “Tom Clancy” and my nickname is “Chunky ____” (not very polite, unfortunately)

There were 2 Tonys..I was Big Tony…later I was Jake(as in Blues)then “the Doctor”(sound lame now,but then it was kinda cool…it was given to me by the basketball team. I sucked at BB)
here are some I gave out:
Beans(he was always ripping them)
Novac(her name was Kim)
Outside man(one of our many Keiths on the BB team, always took the 3 pointers)
Pavo( he called me Gaspacho)
Mr Meoff( as in Jack)